Tag: food

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Surprisingly Productive

I got up this morning and headed home to get ready for my all-you-can-eat date with Allen at Long John Silver’s. He called while I was in the shower and said he was on his way back from church, and then immediately gave up on me and went to eat without me instead of picking me up like we had planned. I met him there, but he had already finished eating. I made sure he wasn’t going to just get up and leave by the time I got my food, and we ended up sitting and chatting for a while. I was pretty aggravated at first, but I let that fizzle out as usual.

After I was stuffed with fish and chicken, we both headed home and I started washing my sheets and cleaning up the bedroom. I worked on that all day and late into the evening until bedtime. A better person would have made more progress, but I was happy with what I accomplished in my one little corner.

Well that was nearly half of my entire life.

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Gettin’ Weepy

The girls had all region today, so I got up alone and had some salad for breakfast before heading home to clean up. I had to get Aimee’s laptop from the high school to her at the junior high, and ended up sitting and chatting with her for quite a while. By the time I left there, Summer had already left the concession stand, so I left and stopped by Ridgewood Brothers to pick up some smoked turkey. I must have clicked something on the iPad that made it not charge my credit card, so when I got back to the car and realized it, I ran back to pay Robert and he handed me a side of slaw to go with it.

I ate a little when I got home, then cleaned the vacuum cleaner so I could clean up the bedroom a bit. There’s still a ton of junk in there to sort through and discard, but at this rate that will always be the case. Eventually Summer got everyone home, so I went to pick her and Autumn up so we could go to Walmart. I volunteered to make burgers and Autumn wanted to pick up some snacks for Eaddie and herself while Summer and I were out with friends.

We dropped Autumn off and gathered everything up to head to John and Melissa’s. Travis was already there, and Veronica and her kids showed up a bit after that. We had a great time eating and drinking, and then tried to play some Magic: The Gathering until we gave up on teaching three new players and switching to Cards Against Humanity. Asher had brought it and wanted to play, but we refused until he could beat Travis at Magic. The kids ended up leaving to go to an escape room anyway, which made it all the more funny when they returned to us playing their game.

By the end of the night, Travis had gotten pretty weepy about everything, so we tried to sober him up enough just for us to take him home. As I walked him into his house, he seemed very concerned about the Dust from His Dark Materials. I did my best to reassure him, and locked him in his house so I could get home with Summer for some sleep.

I AM THE DARKNESS! I AM THE ONE WHO DUSTS!

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Busy Start to a Busy Weekend

Amanda and I coordinated our Weird Al shirts for today’s meeting. Allen and I were going to team up for the day, but before we could do that we had a conference room meeting about job expectations. It was a little foreboding, but I was hopeful.

Allen and I first went to the high school with the trailer to pick up the cart that had mysteriously appeared in my office the day before. We took it back to the shop, then took a touch panel to Crawford to be installed in the afternoon. Since we were on that side of town, I offered to ride up to Center Valley with him to check out their sign. I pulled the truck right up to it, which worked perfectly for climbing up to the raised panels. We couldn’t get any video out, so we pulled the computer and headed back to the shop for lunch.

I had been thinking of Fat Daddy’s, and I guess that psychically rubbed off onto everyone else, because a huge group of six of us went to the one downtown. I got the nachos since they were presented so much better than the one in London. Then it was back to the shop to get ready for Allen’s touch panel install.

When we finished with that, we ran by the high school so I could check on Ethan and his robotics tournament setup. We got him squared away, then stopped in to see Al, who had accidentally hidden all of his desktop icons. Jason called us all back to the shop at the end of the day, which was predictably bad. It’s upsetting to see that happen to a friend, but at the end of the day, you’ve got to do the things if you’re going to have a job. I really love Ben as a boss, but I hate how easy it is for people to take advantage of his want to see the best in everyone.

With that done, they let us out a bit early and I headed home to bring in the day’s shipments. It wasn’t too long before I had to head to Walmart for some drinks for dinner with Ronda and Steven. Inside wasn’t too bad, but traffic outside was an absolute zoo. I was running behind and still had to swing by to pick up the girls. We ran on up the mountain and had a great time and an incredible feast of M-E-A-T! Steven grilled marinated pork chops and ribeyes to go with some asparagus and tomatoes, twice-baked potatoes, and more. Every time I turned around, he was making something else for us. He really pulled out all the stops for us, and I hate that I don’t think I could ever top that, but I think he and I just really enjoy hosting like that.

We all ate so much, and the girls had fun with Maleea, but we had to get everyone home for all region band in the morning. I had to give up programming their DirecTV remote, and we got everyone to bed with a medium amount of fighting. Looks like we’re going to be running all weekend.

What an extravaganza.

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All Gobbled Up

It wasn’t quite as cold out today, but my office was still pretty frigid. The morning went by quickly, and then I headed to the shop before lunch. Allen, Jason, and Brice wanted to go to Long John Silver’s, so Brice and I split a 12 for $12.12 coupon and ate too much. I actually stopped myself a little early and kept some leftovers for dinner.

The afternoon went by pretty quickly, and was just as quiet as this morning. I stayed a bit late to finish up on Aimee’s laptop, then headed home to change. Summer went to Eaddie’s concert tonight, because I guess they have too many bands to host them all on the same night, and wanted me to figure out dinner. I ran to Walmart for a few things, then made it up to their house to start some turkey stock in the Instant Pot.

Summer got home just as the pressure cooking finished, but I still had to let it depressurize to add the stock to the rest of the soup. I started some carrots, celery, onion, and fresh thyme in another pot and got a good browning on all of that, then added the stock, leftover turkey meat, and some egg noodles. I thought it came out really great, and was ready to eat just as the kids got back from their dinner. Summer ate as she fought her exhaustion calling her to bed, and then everyone went to sleep.

All this perfection hurts my back after a while.

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Chili Fingers

I froze all day long, with my office blowing nothing but cold air at me. I spent almost the entire day sifting through verbose log files to try and fix the same Chrome issue that I’m sure ultimately doesn’t matter because it’s an old computer on an old 32-bit version of Windows 7, but I wanted to try anyway. An hour or so in, I was surprised with a lockdown drill, so for the first time I actually had to participate. Just as I got up to lock the door, a girl peeked in my window and needed a place to hide, so I let her in and we sat in the dark together for the next 15 minutes until they gave the all-clear.

I finally took a break to grab my new Fossil Gen 5 Carlyle that was delivered, and headed to the shop for lunch. Allen and Gary wanted Kob Jai, and against what every experience I’ve ever had there, I decided to give it another shot. They got grilled chicken, which was really just two boneless, skinless chicken breasts charred until black on the outside and served with a container of sticky rice and an egg roll or two. It was simply the most underwhelming looking plate I could imagine anyone serving, but the chicken looked good for those that like it cooked just a step above jerky. I had the pad thai again, this time with “all the stars,” and the noodles were super tough and chewy. There was very little chicken, especially compared to what appeared to be four breasts sitting across the table from me. It tasted alright I guess, but overall I should really commit to never going there again.

When we got back to the shop, I spent quite a while setting up my new watch with Gary. The first big update caused the watch to run super poorly while also absolutely nuking the battery. I got it up to 100% while setting it up, and then after failing the first update attempt, it dropped down below 60% within just a few minutes. A restart and re-download of the same update later, it did finally succeed and ran smooth as butter.

I wrapped up the day working on the same stuff I’d wasted all morning on, and headed home in the freezing cold. I got some gas, then ran the dollar menu gauntlet for some Wendy’s nuggets and McDonald’s fries because I was super hungry after only eating half of my lunch plate. I finished them along with my leftovers for lunch, then bundled up the best I could for a cold night at home. Jack came on and we played a little Overwatch before bed.

Hands like ice.

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Icetown

It just kept getting colder and colder today. I got to call 911 to test the office phone system, which was mildly entertaining. Summer joined Ben, Zach, Gary, and me for $5 salads at Ruby Tuesday. Then I met Aimee after school so I could try and recover files and restore her son’s old laptop. I ended up staying pretty late working on a stupid Chrome issue on an old music department computer, and it was super cold when I got home.

Autumn had her Christmas concert, but I didn’t have the nerves to make it back out. I had a drink and just mellowed out at home until they finished, and then Summer came by and took us to Waffle House for a late dinner.

Scattered, smothered, covered, chunked, diced, peppered, capped, topped, country.

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Often Imitated

Winter makes it hard to roll out of bed for work in the morning. I don’t recall it doing any favors for work in the afternoon either though. I took my toaster in to work so I could have a piping hot bagel. I hadn’t been there for very long before UPS showed up with my Macy’s package. It was my toaster oven and electric skillet. I went home for lunch to bring them in, and I’m pretty sure I scared off a tweaker that was trolling through my neighborhood on a bicycle. He seemed to be looking pretty intently at all the doors, and then immediately left when he saw me park the car.

After that, I talked myself into going to Burger King for their Bacon King. It wasn’t anywhere near as good as Wendy’s Baconator, but it wasn’t awful either. It was big though, I have to give them that.

The afternoon went by pretty slowly as well, until I tried to go by the shop and discovered everyone had already gone home due to the Christmas parade. It wasn’t even 4:30 yet, and people were already lining up along the street to see the show, and the traffic just made me angry. I hate parades.

I went home to chill out for a while before heading up to Summer’s, where I emptied the refrigerator of all the remotely relevant leftovers I could find. Summer wanted nachos, and it was my job to figure out how to make that happen out of Thanksgiving leftovers. I think I did pretty well.

We ended the evening with a couple episodes of Parks and Recreation, and then I spent some time browsing for sunglasses with bayonet temples, because I’m eclectic like that. The Chinese counterfeit market is pretty good for those, too.

Is it good that you can’t tell the difference?

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Nice to See Yule

It was pretty cold this morning, but the afternoon turned out pretty nice. I made it in to work and picked at a few things in the morning until I had to leave for my contact refitting. I’m not sure what brand they had me try first, but they were always dry and scratchy, and just generally fit really poorly. The ACUVUE OASYS they gave me today were immediately way better, though still felt a bit scratchier than the CooperVision Proclear lenses from my existing prescription. They also give me some sort of aberration that I mostly noticed in my upper left peripheral vision, but that may become less noticeable with time.

When I finished with that appointment, I went by Taco John’s and picked up some lunch to surprise Summer. We ate quickly, and then I went to the shop to check in since I didn’t do that yesterday after our week break. I mingled and chatted there for quite a while before heading back to the high school to finish the day. I wrapped up by tinkering with my tiny Christmas tree to get it all properly lit, then headed to my parents’ house for dinner. Mom made some fish soup out of the turkey broth Dad made. Then I picked through another bag of old nostalgic crap that Dad was trying to throw away before going to get the girls from karate.

We headed to their house for the evening, and I played on Stadia for a bit. Farming Simulator 19 seemed about as complicated as I expected. Then I switched to Tomb Raider, another December freebie. It played pretty well, but there was one particular moment where I definitely blamed my repeated deaths on input lag.

Can’t forget Hog Wild Wednesday for 10¢ off at Shell tomorrow!

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Blurry Work Day

It was really tough getting to work today. I mostly sat quietly in my office all day, not even leaving for lunch. I was wearing my trial contacts, and as the day progressed I just hated them more and more. One or the other of my eyes was pretty much always blurry, and probably dry. I finally called the clinic and scheduled an appointment to try another pair tomorrow.

I got one stubborn deployment made for Heather, and had two thirds of a Soylent for lunch, and then went to my parents’ house for dinner. I was able to clean up a bunch of leftovers from Thanksgiving, and then Dad and I went through some more old stuff from my old bedroom. Eventually I had to head home to clean up, and then did some more deal hunting before bed.

We’re entering the package delivery zone. Brace for impact!

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I’ll Never Forget About Larry

Summer had to work this morning, which allowed for me to sleep in a while. With Thanksgiving break nearly over, I let myself get a pretty slow start to the day. I had to get the girls from their friend’s house, but first I stopped by the Ridgewood Brothers to try and snag some brisket. Grant handed me a cube of it out the window as I approached, and it just melted in my mouth. I picked up a couple pounds along with some sides, picked up the girls, and took them home.

Summer got home just a bit after us, we ate, and then left the girls to clean house while we went shopping. My first stop was Bath & Body Works, where I dragged her around the store sniffing soaps. I had a coupon, a need for fancy foaming soaps, and a complete lack of shame for being the one that wanted to go shopping there.

Next we stopped at my house for just a moment before heading to Walmart for groceries and other shopping list things I needed. I ended up grabbing one of those Black Friday pressure washers that Julie was going on about, since they had a pallet of them left over. I wish we could have spent a little more time looking, but we had to get back before Harry got to the house.

When we got there, the girls were inside giggling about how he was driving up and down the road trying to find their house, rather than trying to help direct him to the place. Summer started cooking most of the meal, and I changed the oil for some sweet potato fries. The kids played the Switch a bit before wandering back through the house. Dinner was simple and good, though I was still pretty full from the late BBQ lunch.

We played a couple quick rounds of Stuff Happens and Uno before the girls settled in to watch The Conjuring. Eaddie was probably the most excited to watch a scary movie, but I knew the game. Harry ended up having to leave before the movie was over, so Autumn went to her room for the night while I helped Eaddie finish the movie. Once that was over, she beat me in some Mario Kart before awkwardly snuggling to some Luke Cage. She started to fall asleep in the middle of the second episode, so that was the end of the day.

Just trying to make up for lost time…